Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Wordsworth Classics)

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The Mayflower case highlighted the growing disconnect between the obscenity laws and the permissive society that was developing in late 1960s Britain, and was instrumental in shifting views to the point where in 1970 an uncensored version of Fanny Hill was again published in Britain. Note: This tag applies to scans and photocopies only. For photographs of public domain originals taken from afar, {{PD-Art}} may be applicable. See Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag.

Memoirs of a woman of pleasure : Cleland, John, 1709-1789

Bates, Stephen (1 March 2010). "Father Hill and Fanny Hill: an Activist Group's Crusade to Remake Obscenity Law". UNC / First Amendment Law Review. 8 (2): 49.I then just hinted to him not to mention in the house his having seen such a person as me, for reasons I would explain to him more at leisure: and then, for fear of miscarrying by being seen together, I tore myself from him with a bleeding heart, and stole up softly to my room, where I found Phœbe still fast asleep, and hurrying off my few cloaths, lay down by her, with a mixture of joy and anxiety, that may be easier conceived than express'd. I had it now, I felt it now: and beginning to drive, he soon gave nature such a powerful summons down to her favourite quarters, that she could no longer refuse repairing thither: all my animal spirits then rush'd mechanically to that center of attraction, and presently, inly warm'd, and stirr'd as I was beyond bearing, I lost all restraint, and yielding to the force of the emotion, gave down, as mere woman, those effusions of pleasure, which in the strictness of still faithful love, I could have wish'd to have held up. Phœbe at this redoubl'd her laugh, and, whilst I expected a very serious solution of my doubts and apprehensions in this matter, only told me that she never heard of a mortal wound being given in those parts, by that terrible ​weapon, and that some she knew younger, and as delicately made as myself, had outlived the operation, that she believed, at the worst, I should take a great deal of killing: ————that true it was, there was a great diversity of sizes in those parts, owing to nature child-bearing, frequent over-stretching with unmerciful machines; but that at a certain age, and habit of body, even the most experienc'd in those affairs could not well distinguish between the maid, and the woman, supposing too an absence of all artifice, and things in their natural situation: but that since chance had thrown in my way one sight of that sort, she would procure me another, that should feast my eyes more delicately, and go a great way in the cure of my fears from that imaginary disproportion. McCorison, Marcus A. (1 June 2010). "Printers and the Law: The Trials of Publishing Obscene Libel in Early America". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 104 (2): 181–217. doi: 10.1086/680925. ISSN 0006-128X. S2CID 152734843.

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure/Letter the First Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure/Letter the First

When he had finish'd his stroke, and got from off her, she lay still without the least motion, breathless, as it should seem, with pleasure. He replaced her again breadthwise on the couch, unable to sit up, with her thighs open, ​between which I could observe a kind of white liquid, like froth, hanging about the outward lips of that recent opened wound, which now glowed with a deeper red. Presently she gets up, and throwing her arms round him, seemed far from undelighted with the trial he had put her to, to judge at least by the fondness with which she ey'd, and hung upon him. We breakfasted; and the tea-things were scarce removed, when in were brought two bundles of linnen and wearing apparel; in short, all the necessaries for rigging me out, as they termed it, compleatly. According to literary critic Thomas Holmes, Fanny and Mrs Cole see the homosexual act thusly: "the act subverts not only the hierarchy of the male over the female, but also what they consider nature's law regarding the role of intercourse and procreation". [25] Themes and genre [ edit ] Metonymy [ edit ] Although editions of the book have frequently featured illustrations, many have been of poor quality. [21] An exception to this is the set of mezzotints, probably designed by the artist George Morland and engraved by his friend John Raphael Smith that accompanied one edition.Phœbe lay down by me, and ask'd me archly, if now that I had seen the enemy, and fully considered him, I was still afraid of him? or did I think I could venture to come to a close engagement with him? to all which not a word on my side: I sigh'd, and could scarce breathe: She takes hold of my hand, and having roll'd up her own petticoats, forced it half-strivingly towards those parts, where now grown more knowing, I mist the main object of my wishes; and finding not even the shadow of what I wanted, where every thing was so flat! or so hollow! In the vexation I was in at it, I should have withdrawn my ​hand, but for fear of disobliging her. Abandoning it then entirely to her management, she made use of it as she thought proper, to procure herself rather the shadow than the substance of any pleasure. For my part, I now pin'd for more solid food, and promis'd tacitly to myself that I would not be put off much longer with this foolery from woman to woman, if Mrs. Brown did not soon provide me with the essential specific: in short I had all the air of not being able to wait the arrival of my lord B ———, tho' he was now expected in a very few days: nor did I wait for him, for love itself took charge of the disposal of me, in spite of interest, or gross lust. The fluctuations of my mind, the whole day, produc'd one good effect; which was, that, through mere fatigue I slept tolerably well till five in the morning, when I got up, and having dress'd myself, waited, under the double tortures of fear and impatience, for the appointed ​hour: It came at last, the dear, critical, dangerous hour came; and now supported only by the courage love lent me, I ventur'd a tip-toe, down stairs, leaving my box behind, for fear of being surpriz'd with it in going out. John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure has been described as the first erotic novel in English and is perhaps the greatest example of the genre. From the outset it was mired in disrepute. Cleland penned the novel to liberate himself from debtors’ prison, and the book’s manifestly lewd content led to its legal suppression within a year of publication. Though versions of the novel, nearly always abridged in some form, continued to find a way into print, the Memoirs remained an underground text until the 1960s. Only as that decade ushered in a culture less socially deferential and more sexually permissive was the moment opportune for the obscenity ban to be successfully challenged. Cleland’s novel is a triumph of literary style, resting on his invention of an entirely new, vividly metaphoric, terminology for describing sexual pleasure. My education, till past fourteen, was no better than very vulgar; reading, or rather spelling, an illegible scrawl, and a little ordinary plain-work, composed the whole system of it: and then all my foundation in virtue was no other than a total ignorance of vice, and the shy timidity general to our sex, in the tender stage of life, when objects alarm, or frighten more by their novelty, than any thing else: but then this is a fear too often cured at the expence of innocence, when Miss, by degrees, begins no longer to look on man as a creature of prey that will eat her. When Fa

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Abridged) Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Abridged)

Collins, Ronald K. L.; Skover, David M. (2002). The Trials of Lenny Bruce. Sourcebooks MediaFusion. ISBN 1570719861. The novel consists of two long letters (which appear as volumes I and II of the original edition) written by Frances 'Fanny' Hill, a rich Englishwoman in her middle age, who leads a life of contentment with her loving husband Charles and their children, to an unnamed acquaintance identified only as 'Madam.' Fanny has been prevailed upon by 'Madam' to recount the 'scandalous stages' of her earlier life, which she proceeds to do with 'stark naked truth' as her governing principle. As the book became popular, pirate editions appeared. It was once believed that the scene near the end, in which Fanny reacts with disgust at the sight of two young men engaging in anal intercourse, [9] was an interpolation made for these pirated editions, but the scene is present in the first edition (p. xxiii). In the 19th century, copies of the book sold underground in the UK, the US and elsewhere. [10] In 1887, a French edition appeared with illustrations by Édouard-Henri Avril. Had I lov'd this man, it was not in nature for me to have had patience to see the whole scene through: I should have broke in and play'd the jealous princess with a vengeance; but that was not the case, my pride alone was hurt, my heart not, and I could easier win upon myself to see how far he would go, till I had no uncertainty upon my conscience.Until Fanny Hill, previous heroines had conducted their amorous liaisons "off-stage." Any erotic misadventures were described euphemistically. As women who had gone astray, they always repented, which made even their most outrageous dalliances somehow suitable for a moralistic readership. The protagonist of Fanny Hill, however, never repented a single moment of her sexual exploits ... quite the contrary! And with Fanny, the devil is in the details, realistically described. (Summary by Denny Mike) This, and enough, premised, I go souse into my personal history. My maiden name was Francis Hill. I was born at a small village near Liverpool in Lancashire, of parents extremely poor, and I piously believe, extremely honest. This was a work of literature. Comparing words selected in the 1700s to ones used in 2000s. How writing and describing different sexual related words have gone through extreme change. I also like the storyline, I was wondering how this novel would end. Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure—popularly known as Fanny Hill—is an erotic novel by the English novelist John Cleland first published in London in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London, [1] [2] it is considered "the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel". [3] It is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. [4]